THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 413 



long, round boiler creeping along the 

 rails; but in reality it is a compressed- 

 air engine — for compressed air, rather 

 than electricity, is the haulage power in 

 this mine. 



Upon the surface there is a great air 

 pump that keeps crowding the molecules 

 of air together closer and closer until 

 they push away from one another with 

 the strength of a thousand pounds to the 

 square inch. Think of thin, invisible, im- 

 perceptible air being packed so tight that 

 it tries to burst out again with a strength 

 that would make a Samson seem a weak- 

 ling! Put a cubic foot of this air into a 

 cask and the pressure on the sides would 

 be 432 tons. 



KEEPING TAB ON THE MEN IN THE MINE 



When the miners go down to their 

 work in the morning they are checked in 

 by the "fire boss." He is a foreman who 

 has charge of fire prevention and of the 

 safety of the miners while at their sev- 

 eral tasks. During the night every sec- 

 tion of the mine has been inspected to 

 see whether there is gas anywhere. If 

 there should be an entry, a heading, or 

 a room that is laden with gas, the fact is 

 noted on a slate which is exhibited to the 

 men as they file past. If there is no gas, 

 it is said that the day starts with a clean 

 slate, which is both figuratively and lit- 

 erally true. 



The brass check of every miner who 

 enters the workings is taken and hung up 

 on a board, opposite the number of the 

 room in which he is digging coal. If he 

 has a helper, his check — somewhat dif- 

 ferent — goes up too ; and if there are two 

 men working as partners, that fact is 

 shown on the board also. 



By this careful checking system the 

 location of every miner and every helper 

 in the mine is known all the time, and in 

 case of explosions, fires, or falling walls 

 the management always knows who is in 

 and who is out. 



We walk and walk until we begin to 

 feel as though we might be coming out 

 over in China or France, and then we 

 come to the rooms or chambers — for all 

 the coal in the neighborhood of the hoist- 

 ing shaft has gone up in heat and smoke 

 long before now and this mine is far- 

 flung. 



These rooms or chambers might be 

 monks' cells in some catacombs for the 

 living. Here the miner bores and blasts 

 and digs away the coal and loads it into 

 the mine cars. If he has a helper he does 

 not need to do the loading himself, but 

 in these latter days helpers are not much 

 in evidence. The car holds about 6,000 

 pounds of run-of-the-mine coal, and a 

 miner is supposed to fill two of them a 

 day. 



When the car is loaded the miner puts 

 his number on it, and presently, with 

 much ado, there comes up the heading 

 and into the passageway leading to the 

 chamber a string of mules walking tan- 

 dem, or single file, and dragging an empty 

 car behind. They pull out the loaded car, 

 set the empty one where the miner wants 

 it, and go back the way they came, with 

 the load of coal. 



There are other strings of mules, also, 

 and they distribute the empties and mo- 

 bilize the loaded cars from and at given 

 points. Then the compressed-air engine 

 comes along and makes up a train of 

 loaded cars after dropping one of empties 

 ready for distribution. The coal trains 

 are pulled down to the hoisting shaft, 

 and one by one the cars go to the sur- 

 face, an empty coming down as a loaded 

 one goes up. 



THE DANGERS A MINER FACES 



The dangers the miners have to en- 

 counter are many. Their work is indi- 

 vidualistic and solitary. Who knows 

 whether they are careful in handling their 

 explosives? Who knows whether they 

 keep a proper watch for signs of gas? 

 And yet one careless miner in one little 

 chamber may start a conflagration that 

 will sweep the mine and make scores of 

 victims. He may disdain to screw off 

 the cap of his powder can and pour out 

 the powder in a safe, orderly way, pre- 

 ferring to cut a jagged hole in the top 

 of the can with his pick and to pour out 

 the powder through it. He may disdain 

 to tamp his charge home with clay and 

 may use a lot of paper and coal dust in- 

 stead. All that goes very well until there 

 is fire-damp present, and then — and then 

 the world may read, in newspaper head- 

 lines across the page, of a terrible dis- 

 aster. 



